An interview with Denis Hayes, the organizer of the first Earth Day in 1970 who has continued the work through the international Earth Day Network, gives the environmental leader a forum to call for an end to plastic pollution.

Talking with Mongabay, Hayes discusses the original impetus for Earth Day, its development over the years and the 2018 Earth Day theme: “End Plastic Pollution”. He also examines how the plastic problem is one of regulation, how the idea of sustainable behavior must encompass far more than it has up until now and how national “days” become memes in today’s digital world, so gauging their impact is completely different.

Read the full interview at Mongabay.